S-Video is commonly used in many consumer TVs, DVD players, video tape recorders,

game consoles and almost all TV-out connectors of graphics cards.

In composite video, the luminance signal is low-pass filtered to prevent crosstalk between
high-frequency luminance information and the color subcarrier. In S-Video Color and
Luminance signals are separated in cable, so low-pass filtering isn't needed. This
increases bandwidth for the luminance information, subdues the color crosstalk problem
and leaves more video information intact, thus having a improved image reproduction
compared to composite video.
Due to the separation of the video into brightness and colour components, S-Video is
sometimes considered a type of component video signal, although it is also the most
inferior of them, quality-wise, being far surpassed by the more complex component video
schemes (like RGB). What differentiates from these higher component video schemes is
that S-Video carries the colour information as one signal. This means that the colours
have to be encoded in some way, and as such NTSC, PAL and SECAM signals are all
decidedly different through S-Video. Thus, for full compatibility the used devices not
only have to be S-Video compatible but also compatible in terms of colour encoding.
Pin Name Description
1 GND Ground (Y)
2 GND Ground (C)
3 Y Intensity (Luminance)
4 C Color (Chrominance)
The luminance (Y; greyscale) signal and modulated chrominance (C; colour) information
are carried on separate synchronized signal/ground pairs.
S-Video signals are generally connected using 4-pin mini-DIN connectors using a 75
ohm termination impedance. Today, S-Video can be transferred through SCART
connections as well. S-Video and RGB are mutually exclusive through SCART, due to
the S-Video implementation using the pins allocated for RGB. Most SCART-equipped
televisions or VCRs (and almost all of the older ones) do not actually support S-Video,
resulting in a black-and-white picture if attempted to use, as only the luminance signal
portion is used. Black-and-white picture in itself can also be a sign of incompatible
colour encoding, for example NTSC material viewed through a PAL-only device.
A hack exists to possibly attain color on devices that do not support S-Video through
SCART. This is done via joining the pins 15 and 20 in the SCART connector (either
directly or using a 470pF capacitor), and may not yield optimal results.
It is very simple to convert S-Video to composite signal (just the logical merging of the
two through a filter is required) or vice versa.
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